Morning journal and courier., 1887-08-27


of Anger and Rebellion on the Part
of Cottagers-An Inside View of the
Ten Per Cent. Controversy That Has
seandaIized the sselnbly This sea.
son.
CHAUTAUeUA, Aug. 20.
To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
"Twing-tTang, twing-twang."
It was the same old peripatetic Italisn
band, playing the same old strains of s'See-
Saw" upon one of the same old steamers
that helped to make memorable my first in
PRODUCTION to Chautauqua, away back in the
days when the Chautauqua idea was very
young and the assembly an experiment.
And yet it was not the same old steamer, for
the name at least was new, and SO freshly
painted and overhauled and FURNISHED from
stem to stern was the boat that there was
nothing except the familiarity of its general
outlines to suggest its identity with the afore-
time ':Moulton''
At the very outset I was brought face to
face with the unpleasant fact that there is no
longer competition among the steamers on
the lake, for instead of couple of steamers
at the Lakewood wharf screeching for pa
troRage. we found the Cincinnati gliding ma
jestically away from the dock, although our
train was only five or eight minutes late. It
was accordingly over an hour later when
we were taken in out of the rain by the re-
juvenated and rechristened f'Mouiton."
The trip up the lake was varied by race
between the Nightingale" as the Moulton
is now called, and a passenger train on the
new Chautauqua Lake railway, a fea-
ture which would have been pro-
nounced novelty only short year ago. The
train went faster than we did of course, but
it made frequent stops, allowing US to make
up the distance lost; SO that for long time
we kept pretty nearly abreast of each other.
At length the engine gave a defiant little
snort and disappeared for good around a
wooded promontory.
The only other innovation during the trip
was stop at the Long Point Gardens, where
a pensive-looking elephant was trying to
stand like hen on one leg because the at
mosphere was so cold and dank; while q
number of gaudily- painted menagerie cars
were disposed about the grounds in such a
way that their backs were toward the water.
My errand at Chautauqua was to obtain
both sides of the controversy between the
management and the cottage owners-a ques-
ton in which had not the remotest person
al interest-and to forecast as carefully and
fairly as I could the future of Chautauqua in
view of the grave troubles which are now
threatening the peace and prosperity of the
assembly.
In order that the reader may have Just the
amount of data that had that evening as |
trudged up from the landing in the rain it is
necessary that should go back and review
in the briefest, baldest way possible the agi-
tation and litigation which have character
lied the present season here thus far, with an
occasional reference to the past. This histo-
ry may be surveyed In steps and epochs for
the sake of convenience as follows:
I. Eleven years or SO ago about twenty or
twenty-five cottage-owners voted at meet
ing to put themselves under the rules and
protection of the association and to abide by
the ten per cent. tax levied upon gross re-
ceipts from boarding and lodging which the
association imposes on new lessees. These
cettage-owners were here by virtue of old
camp-meeting leases mads out prior to the
institution of the assembly.
IL Era of subdued grum bling and protes-
tation on the part of cottage holders.
III. Early in June of the present year a
petition signed by ninety cottage-owners is
presented to the trustees asking for relief
from the tax of ten per cent, and suggesting
tax per bed as more equable.
". Early in July supreme Writs are served
upon six of the leading cottage-holders on
the grounds, Mrs. Dawson of Cottage Home,
Mrs. Scott of Longfellow cottage, Mrs. Rue
of Gale cottage, Mr.. Beaujean, Mr. Blanch-
ard and Mrs. Glen, notifying them that in
twenty days they would have to appear and
answer certain complaints against them.
V. July 10 injunction served upon Mrs.
Dawson restraining her from keeping board
ers for hire.
vi. July 27. Injunction dissolved.
tage-owners-a double-barreled affair, ending
in a big row. The meeting gets SO turbulent
that it is abruptly adjourned by the manage
ment faction, and DR.. Vincent marches out
of the room with the remark, "A1l loyal,
law-abiding Chautauquans will follow me. u
The majority stay and Messrs. Wade and
Gale organize new meeting, in which cot
tage-owners vote to rescind the original
agreement. Arrest of Wade and Gale or
dered by President Miller.
VIII. August II. Hearing of the case
against Wade. No complaining witness
appears.
Ger Bemus served with warrants and give
bail in the sum of two Thousand dollars each.
Damage demanded on the ground of false
and malicious arrest in the sum of five thou
sand dollars from each defendant by Messrs.
Gale and Wade.
dropped into the first cottage that came
to as I hurried up Miller avenue, and as ate
my supper began pumping the landlady after
careless fashion on the question of all-ab-
sorbing interest to every cottage-owner at
present Said she: 'I have not taken any
open part in the war myself. The manage
ment send me guests frequently and of
course hate to seem ungrateful. I suppose
if hadn't some interest at stake in this way
should feel as Mrs. Dawson, Mrs. Scott,
Mrs. Rue and many of the other cottagers
do"
care supplies much more expensive on the
grounds than at Jamestown for instancef'
''No," was the reply, "not as rule. Some
things cost more. Some kinds of meat
which cost shilling at Jamestown cost ff-
teen cents here. and vetegables are considera-
bly, dearer. On the other hand sugar, tea,
coffee and some kinds of meat are quite as
cheap as at Jamestown. Milk is six cents on
the grounds unless you get quantity of
tickets, and four cents just outside"
This statement of the expensiyeness of
supplies I confirmed by subsequent inquiries
at other cottages.
next proceeded to the Dawson cottage,
where found Mrs. Dawson ill in bed, but
willing to give her side of the controversy
between herself and the management She
is a woman of extraordinary shrewdness, an
exceedingly fluent talkef, and quite equal I
should judge to pleading her own case in
court if she should not choose to hire law
yer. She has been prominent in Chautauqua
county during the last twenty years as an
evangelist and leader in temperance and mis-
sionary work. Said she:
"Of course am distressed by this notori-
ETY., but it has been forced upon nee and I
must now defend myself OF else seem to have
been in the wrong. We cottage owners are
rebelling at the ten per cent. tax because in
the first place it is a burden which many OF
us find very onerous, and secondly because
it is illegally required of us. If we had the
f6o Lnx1o
vote it off. And we did,"
"Was not the meeting adjourned by its
regular ofieefs?"
''No, not legally so. President Miller said